Al Arabiya English
Monday, 9 May 2016

News outlets this week speculated on the apparent conversion of a former American Muslim beauty queen to Christianity. Lebanese-born
Rima Fakih came to fame after winning the national Miss USA pageant in
2010. She later had a short-lived stint as a WWE wrestler.

But now, the 30-year-old beauty queen also seems to have come to a new faith. UK-based magazine Christian Today
reported that Fakih “gave her life to Christ last month,” as she
prepares to marry Wassim Salibi, a wealthy music producer who is a
Maronite Christian..

While Fakih was
raised as a Shiite Muslim, she attended a Catholic school near the
Lebanese capital Beirut. Her family later moved to New York to escape
the devastation of the Lebanese Civil War.

The economic and social impact
of the Syrian crisis — now entering its sixth year — is one of the most
critical issues facing Lebanon. The total number of displaced Syrians
who took refuge in Lebanon since the outbreak of the conflict in March
2011 stands at 1.5 million, equivalent to about a quarter of Lebanon’s
population. This has strained the public financial capacities and the
provision of environmental services in Lebanon. The crisis is also expected to increase rampant poverty among the Lebanese and widen the income inequality gap.

In particular, estimates indicate that as a result of the Syrian
crisis, about 200,000 Lebanese nationals fell into the clutches of
poverty. It is also estimated that about 300,000 Lebanese citizens have
become unemployed, and most of them are unskilled young people, which is
without a doubt a result of the harmful effect of the low cost of
Syrian workers.

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Beirut: Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb confronted
several new challenges on Friday after the Financial Prosecutor, Judge
Ali Ebrahim, indicted three high-level officials at the state-owned
Ogero telecommunications company in the ongoing internet scandal, and
after the MTV television chairman and CEO, Michel Gabriel Al Murr,
accused him of lying.

Harb, who famously condemned General
Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi in 2013 and threatened to take him to court
after the latter allegedly protected a presumed assassin (nothing
happened on that front since that time), spent three hours on Thursday
evening on the LBC Kalam Al NAS talk show with Marcel Ganem to
display his dazzling perspectives. It was unclear whether he succeeded
to salvage the ongoing Ogero scandal.

– A United Nations envoy for Lebanon reported to the
Security Council today on how the current political paralysis, including
the two-year presidential vacuum, is negatively impacting the country’s
ability to make vital decisions.

“Undoubtedly, since the resolution was passed in September 2004, a lot has been achieved,” Terje Roed-Larsen said at a press stakeout following closed-door consultations with the Security Council, referring the 15-member body’s resolution 1559,
which declared support for free and fair elections in Lebanon and
called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.

An example of such achievement included the withdrawal in 2005 of Syrian
troops and military assets from Lebanon on the basis of the resolution.
Mr. Roed-Larsen recalled that it was an agreement which he made on
behalf of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with Syrian President
Bashar al Assad in Aleppo, highlighting that had been honoured by
Syria’s Government “to the letter.”

AP, Bassem Mroue

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah
group mourned on Friday the killing in Syria of its top military
commander, Mustafa Badreddine, who died in an explosion in Damascus — a
death that is a major blow to the Shiite group, which has played a
significant role in the conflict next door.

Badreddine, 55, had been the mastermind of the group’s involvement in
Syria’s civil war since Hezbollah fighters joined the battle on the side
of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces against those trying to
remove him from power, according to pro-Hezbollah media. Hezbollah,
along with Iran, has been one of Assad’s strongest backers.

But there was little information as to how he was killed. Hezbollah said
the attack occurred near the Damascus airport without giving details.
The airport is close to the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab where the
group has wide presence and several military positions.

However, a man of Lebanese origin
rising to presidency – even in faraway Brazil – was still a reason to
celebrate for the twitterati. Temer’s family comes from the northern
town of Btaaboura where his distant cousin Bassam Barbar is the mayor.
Temer has visited his parents’ home country twice, once in 1997 and the
second time in 2011 as vice-president.

Daily Star.com.lb, Several dozen people gathered outside a Future Movement office in Beirut’s Al-Tariq al-Jadideh area Thursday to demand payments. A
source told The Daily Star that the protesters were staff hired to
campaign for the Future Movement’s “Beirutis’ List” in Sunday’s
municipal elections in the city. Protesters accused the party’s
general coordinator for Beirut Bachir Itani of receiving their payments
and delaying their delivery, the source added, saying the demonstrators
will hold a larger rally in the same area at 6:00 p.m.However,
Al-Jadeed television broadcast hidden video recorded by one of its
reporters alleging that the protesters were voters who were promised payments for backing the Future list.

The
video showed about 30 or 40 people holding up papers and their identity
cards to men on a balcony in the Qasqas neighborhood. Al-Jadeed said it will broadcast the video in full during its evening broadcast at 7:50 p.m. The
“Beirutis’ List” swept the city’s local elections despite a strong
showing by a rival secular group, Beirut Madinati (Beirut My City), on
Sunday.

Gulf news  by Joseph A. Kechichian, Beirut: For nearly a century, academic works touted the analysis that
Western powers “created artificial nations” in the Eastern
Mediterranean, allegedly because Syria, Lebanon and Palestine were
deprived of historical legacies.

For just as long, Arab
nationalists and Islamists alike focused on the “Sykes-Picot order”, and
argued that the time was long overdue to erase the 1916 accord among
two leading colonial powers that divided the region to serve their
narrow interests.

Beyond simplified analyses, critical assessments
of the agreement overlooked the notion that Lebanon (as well as Syria
and Palestine) were not “artificial creations” but, on the contrary,
benefited from the deal to join the nation-state system, still the most
successful business model that functioned, protected citizens, and
allowed for the creation of wealth even if the major powers sought to
protect oil resources and communication lines.

A new Lebanese
protest movement said on Tuesday it had won 40 percent of the vote in
weekend municipal elections and hailed the result as a blow against the
political establishment even though it failed to win any council seats.

Beirut
Madinati (Arabic for ‘Beirut is my city’) built its support on public
discontent with a failing government and presented itself as an
alternative to long-dominant sectarian parties.

Its
main opponents, the Beirutis list, backed by established groups
including the Future Movement of Sunni Muslim former prime minister Saad
al-Hariri, won all 24 seats on the municipal council in Sunday’s
election with just under 60 percent, or more than 47,000 votes.

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Typical of Lebanese who seldom await official results to
boast achievements, Hezbollah deputy chief Shaikh Naim Qasim called a
press conference and announced the success of the party’s lists in
Baalbek and Brital. No official results were released as of Monday
afternoon.

Qasim, however, declared that these elections
“succeeded in breaking the obstruction that plagued the state and that
[the government was] able to successfully complete the electoral
process”, which was an interesting avowal since few party members backed
the state.

At 2am on Monday, the Head of the “Beirutis” municipal
electoral list, Jamal Itani, also announced that his list won the
capital’s municipal elections, while Interior Minister Nouhad Al
Mashnouq was jubilant that “the Lebanese proved that they deserve
freedom and democracy”.